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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
I had to hurry to finish this book so I could stop having nightmares. I can't imagine what he goes through on a nightly (or daily) basis. I will put this book on my "mature" shelf. It's not something I will recommend to students, but it will serve as a reminder to let them know how good we've always had it in our sheltered, affluent community.
This book is an emotional roller coaster, telling the story how Ishmael went from being a young boy growing up in a remote village in Sierra Leone to becoming an orphaned refugee, to becoming a child soldier, rehabilitation through the Children of War program, to becoming a refugee again as war returns to his life. Putting a face to the painful stories of the news, reminding us of the humanity behind the headlines
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
It was very moving story, but the writing style was too reportorial for my taste. I prefer more descriptive writing.
dark
sad
fast-paced
This one has been sitting on my shelf forever, since Beah came to my university and spoke back when I was college. I finally got around to reading it, although I wish I had done so much closer to when I saw him in person.
This is pretty much exactly what you'd expect - a straightforward narrative of Beah's experience first running from, and then fighting in, a war in his home country of Sierra Leone. The experiences are horrifying, especially seeing that Beah was 13-15 years old when this was all taking place.
Some of the narrative lacks a seasoned writer's flourish, and can be a little staid at times. But I was actually quite surprised with how vivid some of the recollections were, given that they happened so long ago (of course, how can you forget things like this?) and that Beah is not, first and foremost, a writer. Unfortunately the ending was really abrupt, which was too bad because I wanted to know more about what happened to him after.
This is pretty much exactly what you'd expect - a straightforward narrative of Beah's experience first running from, and then fighting in, a war in his home country of Sierra Leone. The experiences are horrifying, especially seeing that Beah was 13-15 years old when this was all taking place.
Some of the narrative lacks a seasoned writer's flourish, and can be a little staid at times. But I was actually quite surprised with how vivid some of the recollections were, given that they happened so long ago (of course, how can you forget things like this?) and that Beah is not, first and foremost, a writer. Unfortunately the ending was really abrupt, which was too bad because I wanted to know more about what happened to him after.
Memoirs like this make me feel like I live under a rock. Unimaginable, yet real.